Downtown Colorado Becomes Clyfford Still's Gulch

       Although he didn't hide his paintings in a valley in the mountains of Colorado, Clyfford Still was for all intents and purposes the John Galt of America's art world.
       Unlike Ayn Rand's character, Still didn't seek to subvert the government. He just kept to himself, rarely selling paintings, and even deciding which work a customer could buy.
       The words of his contemporary, who created  Galt in "Atlas Shrugged," would have suited him well.
       Still rarely was interviewed, and kept his thoughts to himself. But the way he acted was almost a mirror-image of John Galt.
       In a chapter in which Galt is trying to persuade train magnet Dagney Taggert to join his struggle, this is what he said to explain why he was secretly recruiting the best of the best to join him an effort to bring the government down.
       "We are on strike. Why should this seem so startling? There is only one kind of men who have never been on strike in human history. Every other kind and class have stopped, when they so wished, and have presented demands to the world, claiming to be indispensable -- except the men who have carried the world on their shoulders, have kept it alive, have endured torture as sole payment, but have never walked out on the human race."
       It would not be that much of a stretch to take Rand's anti-socialist theme and apply it to some of the Occupy Wall Street activists. Rand frequently threw darts at corrupt capitalists.  What follows might fit today.
       "Yes, this is an age of moral crisis. Yes, you are bearing punishment for your evil.But it is not man who is now on trial and it is not human nature that will take the blame.It is your moral code that's through, this time. Your moral code has reached its climax, the blind alley at the end of its course. And if you wish to go on living, what you now need is not to return to morality -- you who have never known any -- but to discover it," said Galt.
       Still didn't want to influence anyone or be influenced by anyone.
       His work, now that it is being revealed to the world in a new museum exclusively for his art in Denver, will stun many. His 2,400 works were far more than the several dozen large impasto-laden abstractions that did impress museum curators and his colleagues when they were allowed to see them. In fact the museum only got possession of all of them several weeks ago.
       Some of the most stunning are still waiting to be framed or put on stretchers so that they could be hung after being rolled up for more than 40 years.
       The sale of four of them at Sotheby's in Manhattan last week for a total of $114 million was twice what was expected, an indication of how hungry the market is for his unseen works
       Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning and Mark Rothko recognized Still's vision long before the public.
       At first glance some of his works can be almost scary as they tower overhead. Many were ten feet high and 12 feete wide. On the other hand, you have to get within two feet to see all that is there.
       Still climbed up ladders to do his work with a palette knife, employing thick impasto.
       Former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb had made a run at persuading Still's late wife, Patricia, to let Denver build the museum her husband wanted. It fell through.
       But the city did not give up and managed to enlist Still family members to help them persuade her.
       Mayor John Hickenlooper, now governor, went to Washington, D.C., to meet Mrs. Still. He passed up on a meeting of several mayors with the president to make sure he got to her.
       Correspondence shown at a media briefing Tuesday showed it was never a sure thing. Still's two daughters were persuaded to support the sale of four paintings to help pay the cost of construction and create an operational endowment. Mrs. Still had died and thus a judge in Maryland had to give his approval. The four paintings drew $114 million.
       Museum Director Dean Sobel says no museum has as many works, 2,400, of any major artist. And few artists hated museums as much as Still.  "Museums were like morgues,death places," Sobel said.
       The planners had to take that into consideration when they chose to put it next to the Denver Art Museum's two buildings, one built by Daniel Libeskind and the other by Gino Ponti. The library just across the street had a top put on it by Michael Graves.
       It is a museum to an interesting man. Some of his library is displayed, and it included Marcel Proust, Sophocles, Oswald Spengler and many other of the literati.
       Born in 1904 in North Dakota his family moved quickly to Alberta, and it's hard to conceive that the rolling and jagged plains did not influence him. He died in 1980, 30 years after turning away from any public interaction with the art world.

Occupy Wall Street Demonstrators Pick Wrong Artist

  If abstract painting wonder Clyfford Still was still alive he might well have been among the Occupy Wall Street activists protesting the sale of more than $300 million in his paintings and those of compatriots in Manhattan's Sothebys. His 1949-A-No. 1, he usually didn't title paintings, led going for $61.7 million.
   For many years Still refused to allow any of his paintings to be displayed in New York because he felt it was too corrupt.
   When he finally did permit the Metrpolitan Museum of Art to show some in 1980 it was only after it agreed, in an unprecedented fashion, to allow him to post the paintings himself and curate the he exhibition, according to retired Denver Art Museum Director Lewis Sharp. He was working at the Metropolitan at the time.
   Money was less important to many famous painters than Still, even though he got his art education during the the Great Depression. He rarely sold any of his more than 2,000 works. And a buyer had to take the work Still chose for him. His difficult attitude resulted in some calling him the Unabomber of painting.
   Still abhorred the idea of his works being scattered around the nation or world. He wanted them together as much as possible.
   The paintings, when first seen could be mistaken for a horror movie. Works from the 1940s average 4 feet by 6 feet, and paintings from the 1950s average 9 1/2 feet by 12 feet. He splashed thick impasto in what some called a color-field approach.
   The pastels are much smaller and are on paper.
   Still died in 1980, and it was 24 years later before his late widow, Patricia Still, agreed to an offer from the city of Denver to build a museum for his paintings if she would donate many of them. It was under the condition that none would be sold and none would be sent on tours.
   Denver had to get a court to approve its decision to sell four of the several hundred it received. The money is needed to help pay for the construction of the museum, which opens next week, and its operation.
   There can be no doubt that Still's appeal was enhanced by the few sales of his works throughout his lifetime and even after his death.
   Wealthy investors may be viewing paintings as a refuge from the volatile markets. And with gold at $1,800 an ounce Thursday it may not be seen as a viable alternative.

Paterno and Cain and Accountability

The firing of Joe Paterno and bad publicity Herman Cain has received are not likely to result in any permanent changes in the U.S., if early reactions mean anything.
 
   Penn State students rioted Wednesday night to protest Paterno's dismissal for failing to reveal the alleged sodomization of children by a foundation run by one of Paterno's former assistants.
 
   Thousands of students gathered shouting "F* the trustees" and "We want Joe," reported the school's Daily Collegian. Two news vans were overturned.
 
   As allegations that Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain sexually harassed women grow so do his standings in most polls.
 
   Paterno, known as "Joe Pa" at the university for bringing them winning teams without breaking NCAA rules, has won more games than any other coach in NCAA history. It is alleged he was told by a coaching assistant about the sexual abuse of youngsters by former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky at the university-supported foundation. Paterno reported passed the information on to the higher ups but did nothing when no action was taken.
 
   There are unconfirmed reports that Sandusky was forced to retire as a coach after a witness reported seeing him sodomizing a 10-year-old. The university retirement date was not clear. He is charged with sexually assaulting children from 1994 to 2009. Sandusky retired from "The Second Mile Foundation," which he founded, last year.

   The foundation declined to make anyone available to comment. Sandusky's lawyer says he is innocent.

   The Collegian said Sandusky's non-profit organization was given $399,000 in donations the past six years. He said he founded the group to help under-privileged and at risk children.

   The Detroit Free Press published the Penn State grand jury indictment: http://www.freep.com/assets/freep/pdf/C4181508116.PDF
 
   At least five women have accused Cain of sexually harassing them. Although he concedes some were paid settlements that nothing happened and it was not him who paid them. He said the Natonal Restaurant Association, which he formerly served as president and CEO, made the payments.
 
   Cain says Democrats launched the attacks. Some radio hosts have attacked the accusers, the usual pattern when women accuse powerful men of sexual assaults.
 
   The FBI says the vast majority of sexual assault claims are valid.
 
   Top university athletic teams have frequently been accused of breaking recruiting rules.
 
   The University of Southern California, winner of 11 national football titles, was stripped of one earlier this year because it violated recruiting rules to get star running back Reggie Bush.
 
   NCAA athletics generate hundreds of millions of dollars, and they have never been more crucial than now as states have had to cut funding because of economic crisis.
 
   A joke has widely circulated for years, any of the top teams could put be put here, Blank University's football team has made the university something students can be proud of.
 
 
 

Do We Face A Lost Generation, A Lost Decade Or Worse

Whether it was Ernest Hemingway, or his writer-mentor Gertrude Stein, who coined the term "the lost generation," turned out to be perhaps the most understated prediction in history. Made in the last years of World War I and the years that followed, it was hoped it would at least be the war to end all wars.

Archives estimate 17 million died, 10 million military and seven million civilians, according to Wikipedia. The death in World War II and the Holocaust that accompanied it was put at 60 million.

The point of the lost generation was that the wounded and dead were only a part of the toll. Many people lost the spirit to rebuild, even if it was possible.

Although the world had far more powerful weapons during the Cold War 30 years later, the worst was avoided.

IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde, using much milder language, is predicting that if bold, worldwide action is not taken quickly there will be a "lost decade."

Lagarde, whose tough face would make her the most sinewy cut of beef on fine restaurant menus, is calling on all governments to make the cuts in spending and investment in growth necessary.

The U.S., still the most powerful economy in the world, isn't doing it. The will to raise taxes is missing, though the nation hasn't had the violence that has occurred in many other countries _ yet.

Two European prime ministers, George Papandreou of Greece and Silvio Berlusconi of Italy, this week announced they would step down to get their people and opposition to accept cuts even steeper than the trillion already made around the globe.

Before what is needed can be done the angry public must be convinced control of government power will be taken from banks, many say. Banks too-big to fall have profited while millions lost their homes and jobs.

Rich countries like the U.S. are spending fortunes on wars while taxes are lowered.

In Denver, an active center of the Occupy Wall Street movement, the focus now is on a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that said corporations are real people, and have the rights of people.

Border Collie Best In Occupy Denver Show

 Most groups around the world are refusing to meet government demands to act conventionally. The Mile High City is only a bit different.

The group, which has clashed on several occasions with downtown Denver police announced it would name a director: but the activists chose a dog named Shelby.

An unidentified spokesman said that if corporations can be people, as the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled, then dogs can as well.

"Shelby is closer to a person than any corporation: she can bleed, she can breed, and she can show emotion. Either Shelby is a person, or corporations aren't people," the spokesperson said.

A statement emailed to the media Tuesday said: "Newly-elected leader Shelby will be leading this Saturday's Occupy Denver march against Corporate Personhood, and invites all other civic minded dogs (and their leash-holders) to join.

Source: media-pr@occupydenver.org

occupydenver.org

The Two Faces of Justice in America

   Spc. Bradley Manning leaked information he believed revealed war crimes in Iraq. Starlet Lindsay Lohan bought and used drugs and stole a fancy bracelet from a jewelry story.
  
   Despite breaking parole conditions after several releases, Lohan only spent four late evening hours in the county jail on her latest arrest this weekend _ and that was after breaking parole again. Apparently her jail was too crowded.
  
   We don't know much about what is going on with Bradley Mannning. He was arrested in May of last year. He is still in prison though there has been no trial. He has been held in solitary much of the time.
  
   I don't think Lindsey had to remove her clothes when she went to bed. Of course if she had there would have been paparazzi around to catch her.
  
   Of course given that she was unable to post satisfactorily nakedly for Playboy, including full view of her vagina, there might not have been enough time. Her return to jail was delayed at the request of Playboy, whose editors said her naked photos were lame.
  
   Justice expert Jiwei C, author of "The Two Faces of Justice,"  says this kind of disaparate treatment cripples our justice system. Many will simply see no reason to obey the law. Some may want revenge.
  
 

Our Allies in Pakistan and Afganistan Kill Us And Insult Us

   
     The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have cost our nation trillions, as our infrastructure falls apart. No value can be put on blood. Cops, teachers, firefighters, hospital workers are laid off. Schools are closed.
    
     Yet when one of our generals, Peter Fuller, tells the truth about what is going on he gets fired.
    
     Daniel Petraeus and other commanders have known from the start that Pakistan supported the Taliban and Haqqani networks and other insurgents. There are so many groups fighting us the media had to create a new word: militants.
    
     American soldiers and contractors have been killed in Pakistan and Afghanistan with weapons and ammo the U.S. provided Pakistan.
    
     Despite claims by Petraeus and others that we are winning, casualties in Afghanistan are at their highest level ever. During the Vietnam War a more skeptical nation recognized "the five o'clock follies" for what they were.
    
     One famous joke: In 1969 IBM's smartest computer was asked when the war would be over at the current kill rate of Viet Cong and NVA. The answer was 1967.
    
     The only warrior to ever defeat the Afghans was Alexander the Great, and he had to marry one of their princesses to get a deal.
    
     The big difference between Afghanistan and Vietnam is that there are no draftees. Should that justify fighting a war we have no interest in?
    
     Afghan President Hamid Karzai had insulted America on numerous occasions. He made it clear he wanted our military to die before risking killing an Afghan civilian.
    
     When he said Afghanistan would support Pakistan if the U.S. attacked it, Maj. Gen. Fuller said:
    
     “Why don’t you just poke me in the eye with a needle! You’ve got to be kidding me … I’m sorry, we just gave you $11.6 billion and now you’re telling me, ‘I don’t really care’?”
    
     He also said NATO would rather teach Afghans how to fish than buy them fish. But they would prefer to just get more free fish.